Coup de Grace
by Guevera
Summary: The year is 2017. Eleven years ago Col. John Sheppard was killed when a Wraith armada descended on Atlantis, destroying much of the city. But what is the message behind the strange dreams that Dr. Elizabeth Weir has begun to have? Ch 2 up!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Stargate Atlantis. No infringement intended.

A/N: My very first Atlantis fic! Squee! I won't even begin to tell you where I got the idea for this story from, because if I did it would give a lot of the plot away, but this is too juicy to give up. Oh, and I completely and utterly lied when I said that I wasn't going to do any more of my other stories or write any new ones until I finish "With Grace", but I got this idea and had to write it all down before it was all sucked into the evil plot bunny blackhole of nothingness – or forgotten. I could put a bet on the second scenario, but… Oh I'll shut up now – just R&R peoples!

Synopsis: The year is 2017. Eleven years ago Col. John Sheppard was killed when a Wraith armada descended on Atlantis, destroying much of the city. Dr. Elizabeth Weir survived the onslaught, but now, many years later, she has begun to have strange dreams depicting her own death. With the anniversary of John's death approaching, Elizabeth begins to wonder if these are indeed just nightmares, or a message from beyond the grave?

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**"Coup de Grace"**

**Chapter One**

_My name is Dr. Elizabeth Weir. Eleven years ago my husband Colonel John Sheppard was killed when a Wraith armada descended on Atlantis, destroying much of the city. Many brave men and women were lost over those three days. We seemed to be winning the battle with many of the Wraith mother ships departing the planet. But they were too powerful, bringing back a fleet of mother ships with technology beyond our knowledge, so powerful that the city or its occupants did not stand a chance. As the sun set on the third day of battle we saw a glimmer of hope. Earth had received our desperate call for help, sending a message onto the Asgard who, even though they refused to interfere themselves, they were not willing to stand by and allow the city of the Ancients to be destroyed._

_They sent a cargo ship laden with explosives from Earth, along with various Asgard weapons and technology. By the time the ship descended on Atlantis, there were few survivors. Myself, John, and a small group of men and women had taken refuge in a previously unknown compartment in the base of Atlantis. We sat there for days, awaiting our fate. _

_But it never came. The Asgard cargo ship had arrived along with personnel from Earth. After a long battle the Wraith were defeated. Myself and the other survivors came out of our protected hiding place, preparing to go back to Earth, to safety. As we headed towards the ship we disturbed the hiding place of a solitary Wraith. Before we could act he drew his weapon and fired, the shot hitting John directly in the chest. Several of the other survivors fired upon the Wraith, killing it instantly. _

_I held John's head in my arms as the life left his body. Death, it may be the ultimate path to enlightenment, but all I cared about at that very moment was the fact that I had lost the most important thing in the world – the man I loved. _

_One week after I lost John, I discovered I was pregnant._

_I decided to resign from the Stargate program, instead settling in a small part of the forest in the state of Ohio, as far away from the Cheyenne Mountain as I could bear to go._

_The baby was born nine months later. She was a healthy weight, a bundle of smiles and rosy red cheeks. But I saw none of that. I went into deep post-natal depression. I wanted nothing to do with my daughter. To me, every time I looked at her I saw John. I also relived his death, time after time until I could bare it no more. I left Ohio and settled in New York, ready to start a new life._

_It took me over a year to be able to hold my daughter without bursting into tears. We lost some of the most crucial moments in the bonding period, and because of that my daughter has always been distant from me. _

_It is now the year 2017. My daughter is ten years old. Now, three weeks to the eleventh anniversary of John Sheppard's death, my daughter has begun asking questions about her father and our life together. I cannot tell her about Atlantis, it would be too painful._

_But now, I have started having strange dreams about John. He keeps repeating a sentence – "Love is infinite, Elizabeth."_

_They were the last words he spoke before he died in my arms. Not only that, but in the dreams I also see my own death. _

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"_Love is infinite, Elizabeth." _

Elizabeth rolled over in her bed, the words echoing in her head. For the past eleven years Elizabeth has lived back on Earth, trying to block out the memories of Atlantis, the Pegasus Galaxy, and the Stargate – anything that reminds her of John. It was too painful to remember the times they had together.

She reached her arm across to the bedside table and flicked on the lamp. A hazy glow came out of the top of the lamp, casting a silhouette of eerie shadows onto the roof and walls. She picked up a glass of water from the bedside table and took a sip, her eyes trailing away from the glass and towards the doorway. Her daughter stood in the doorway, her head turned to the side with a questioning look on her face. Her shoulder-length dark brown hair pushed behind one ear as the tips touched the collar of her green and blue pajamas.

Elizabeth sat silently on the bed, looking at her daughter. Tory lent against the doorframe, both of them waiting for the other to speak.

"Everything okay?" Elizabeth asked Tory. She didn't answer, instead screwing up her face in thought. Elizabeth patted the corner of the bed, asking her if she wanted to sit down. Tory had always been a quiet kid with a fierce independence. Elizabeth knew that because of her post-natal depression they hadn't had the chance to bond properly from the beginning, and although they were more like friends than mother and daughter, they had an unusual relationship.

"Elizabeth…" Tory said quietly, causing her mother's head to shoot up in realization.

"What did you say?" Elizabeth questioned her daughter, shocked to hear her calling her by her first name instead of "mum". The other thing that shocked Elizabeth was the way Tory said her name, quietly and sweetly, but almost like there was something that she wanted to say that she was unsure of.

Just like John used to.

"Tory?" Elizabeth prompted. Tory shook her head, "Sorry mum." She said before turning to exit the room in a hurry. Elizabeth let her go, deciding to talk to her in the morning before school. Tory had been acting strange lately, in the past three or so weeks she had been unusually silent and whenever Elizabeth prompted her she left the room in a hurry. She didn't know what had gotten into her.

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Tory sat cross-legged on the floor in her bedroom looking down at an object in her hands. It was a beautiful old book she had found in her mother's study. Elizabeth had forbidden Tory to go in there, so of course she took no notice, deciding to instead explore the room that her mother was so adamant about her not looking in. Tory could tell the book used to be golden in colour, but over time most of the thin gold outer casing had worn away, leaving in its place a drab brown cover. There was no title to the book, but that didn't matter. Tory was more interested in it's contents.

Inside the book were what looked like strange writing, delicately crafted letters that Tory knew her mother didn't write. The words were written in black ink, and although there wasn't much writing, there were small photographs of stone walls with the same strange writing. Tory had sat for hours staring at these writings, she felt like she knew what it meant, but was yet to find the answer.

As she turned the pages she noticed the corner of one page was stuck together. She ran her finger along the rim of the page until she got to the top, prizing open the two pages that she had previously missed. Inside was an ash grey envelope that had the flap neatly tucked into the body of the envelope. The rim of the flap was slightly ripped and there were smudged fingerprints on the corners, like it had been opened many times. Tory paused for a minute, reconsidering whether she should look in it or not. It was her mother's private possession, after all.

Tory decided to have a look anyway, reaching in and pulling out a pile of photographs. The photos had been worn from constant handling, but the fronts of them were not damaged. She took the first one from the pile and examined it, seeing her mother straight away in amongst a group of people. They were standing in front of a giant circular object, it was grey in colour and had weird writing on it like the writing in her mother's book. Her mother was dressed in a red t-shirt and grey jacket with red on the front. The people surrounding her were dressed mostly the same, their uniforms differing in colour.

The next photo was a similar shot, but there weren't as many people in the photo. The next few were almost the same as the first two, but the last three were what caught Tory's eye. The first of the three was a photo of Elizabeth and a dark-haired man, he was very handsome and had dark piercing eyes. The next two were ones of her mother and the same man, but these ones differed. One they were standing very close and the man had her arm around her mother, and Tory noticed something that she hadn't seen in a long time. Her mother was smiling. She looked happy, causing Tory to become even more suspicious as to who this man was.

The last photo was of her mother and the same man, but this time her mother was looking deep into his eyes, and she was holding a bouquet of bright red roses. It was a wedding. _Their wedding_.

Tory got up suddenly, rushing into her mother's bedroom. Elizabeth had turned off the bedside lamp and was facing the wall, away from Tory. Tory reached across and flicked on the lamp, the eerie glow canvassing over her the bed. Elizabeth turned to face Tory, sitting up sharply when she noticed tears welling up in Tory's eyes.

"Sweetie what's the matter?" Elizabeth asked her, reaching out a comforting hand. Tory pulled away violently, shoving the photo of her mother and the man into Elizabeth's face. Tory watched Elizabeth's face darken, "Where did you get this?"

Tory stepped back, "You lied to me!" she said angrily, taking another step back from Elizabeth.

"Lied? Sweetie what are you talking about?" Elizabeth asked, knowing exactly what she meant.

"You told me you were never married! Who's this?" she asked, holding out the photo to Elizabeth once more. She took it gently from her daughter, brushing her finger over the image of John's face. "His name is John Sheppard."

"He's my father, isn't he?" Tory asked Elizabeth.

Elizabeth hesitated, not moving or speaking. She didn't want her daughter to know about her father, but she knew she was bound to find out one day. Elizabeth was keeping John from Tory for selfish reasons, she knew that.

Tory snatched the photo from her mother, not waiting for a response.

"I _hate _you! You _lied_ to me!" she screamed before rushing out of the room, slamming the bedroom door shut with a loud bang.

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**A/N: You know the dealio, reviews people:)**


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the show.

A/N: I've totally gone blank as to what to put in here, oh well, please read and review people!

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**Chapter 2**

Elizabeth decided to leave Tory be until she calmed down enough, and for Elizabeth herself to figure out what to say to her daughter. Whilst mother and daughter have always had a close relationship, it was more like friends than anything else. Although, Elizabeth knew that while they may have been close in context, they never really had the "bond" that many other mothers had with their daughters.

Elizabeth closed her eyes, trying to encourage sleep, but she couldn't get the nagging thought out of her head, _how much did Tory really know?_ Elizabeth always imagined herself sitting down with Tory and telling her all about the Stargate program, about all the other worlds in this galaxy and the Pegasus Galaxy. Also about all the people who lived in these worlds – many plagued by power-hungry races such as the Goa'uld – and others, such as the Wraith, who were not interested in converting people to their religion, or turning them into slaves. Their main concern was where their next meal was going to come from.

Elizabeth wasn't sure she wanted Tory to know about the horror and cruelty that happened in other worlds; there was enough going on here without her having to worry herself with other culture's problems. She is only ten years old, Elizabeth reminded herself; if she was to one day learn about the bigger picture, it would not be any time soon.

She wanted Tory to say as innocent as possible for as long as possible. Elizabeth rolled over in her bed, stretching her legs out in an attempt to make herself comfortable. Eventually she felt her eyes drifting shut as she fell into a deep sleep, and, right on cue, the dreams began.

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_Elizabeth was standing in a lush green field. There were bright yellow flowers covering much of the ground as she stepped forwards, her SG uniform feeling unusually heavy as she looked down at her hands. She was holding a P-90, it was heavy and the metal was hot from the sun, which beamed down on her, casting a bright glow on everything around her. Suddenly Elizabeth heard a noise behind her, it sounded similar the bone-chilling noise the Wraith hive ships made, but slightly different. She turned around to look in the direction of the noise but her movements were slow and tedious. She stepped though the long green grass, heading towards a glowing blue light that shone from the inner forest. She could see figures moving in a clearing of the forest, they seemed to be lifting something but Elizabeth was too far away to see what exactly it was._

_Suddenly, the bright picture that was painted in front of her seemed to disappear, melting into darkness. Angry black clouds swirled overhead, their mere presence blocking out the large orange sun. Elizabeth squinted as the sun's strength increased, then suddenly decreased. She knew she was not on Earth. _

_The dark, distant figures that Elizabeth previously saw were now gone from the clearing. She spun around, searching the trees for any sign of them. She felt a slight breeze pass her, then a dim glow that circled her, and then passed. Elizabeth could feel her heartbeat increasing, a sickening feeling swirled in her stomach as her heart began to beat even faster, tapping against her ribcage until she felt nauseous. She bent forward, clutching her stomach in pain as the sickened feeling changes to a sharp jolt that shot through her entire body. _

_Elizabeth fell to the ground in pain, rolling onto her back whilst still clutching her stomach in agony. She looked up at the darkened sky as the swirling mass of clouds spread to the horizon, engulfing everything in its path. She turned to face the area where she saw the figures, then suddenly felt a tingle up her spine as a dark figure approached her, then seemingly vanished into thin air. Elizabeth screwed up her face in pain and confusion, willing this torture to stop with every ounce of energy she had left. She noticed a dark shape lying on the ground, realizing that the figure had not vanished but had collapsed into the dust. _

_Suddenly the sky opened, the clouds dumping bucket loads of rain for as far as the eye could see, soaking Elizabeth and the figure that lay slumped nearby. The pain subsided in her stomach gradually until Elizabeth was able to sit up. She raised her P-90 in one hand as she crawled on her hands and knees over to the figure. Suddenly, a jolt ran through her stomach, but instinct told her it wasn't the same as before._

_A sickening jolt ran through Elizabeth's body as she bore down on the figure that lay on the now-muddy ground. She lowered her P-90 as fear washed over her. She reached out towards the figure, fear ripping through her as realization hit her - she knew exactly who this was. _

_Elizabeth's hand almost came in contact with the soaked jacket, but before she could roll the person over to see their face, a bright light lit up the sky, sending Elizabeth flying. She landed in the mud with an agonizing thud, pain once more shooting through her body and up her spine. _

_Her eyes drifted shut as the pain overcome her, the fear still adamant as her breath came out in short gasps. She was unable to move any part of her body as her eyes clamped shut for a final time, the last image she saw was that of the very familiar figure laying motionless in the mud in front of her._

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**A/N: Reviews people:) **


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